Working with this agency
Annual policy review
Bring the declarations pages — the summary sheets, not the whole booklet. Most of what is wrong with a household's insurance is visible in about forty minutes, and none of it is visible from a price.
Insurance goes wrong slowly. You extend the house, the children get licences, the business takes on staff, the ring gets bought, the boiler gets older — and the policy carries on describing the household you were eight years ago. Nothing announces the gap.
A review is not a sales appointment with a different name, and the honest test of that is how often it ends with us telling you to keep what you have. It does, frequently, because a policy that is correctly built and fairly priced should not be moved just because somebody new looked at it.
What we actually look for
On the home: whether Coverage A would rebuild the house at today's prices, whether ordinance and law is on there, whether water backup and equipment breakdown are, and whether the liability limit bears any relation to the equity it is protecting. Whether anything has been built or converted since the policy was written.
On the motor: every licensed driver in the household actually listed, the garaging address correct, the SUM limit matched to liability rather than left at the mandatory minimum, and whether the credits you qualify for are being applied — the good student certificate in particular, which lapses quietly every year.
On the business: whether the classification is right, whether your receipts or payroll have outgrown the estimate on the policy, whether the lease and your customer contracts require endorsements you do not have, and whether the four things a packaged policy leaves out have been dealt with anywhere.
Across all of it: sub-limits on valuables, claims-made retroactive dates, an umbrella that no longer sits above raised underlying limits, and policies renewing at different dates with different agencies so that nobody sees the whole picture.
Why it is free, and what that means
We are paid a commission by carriers on the policies we place. We charge no broker fee and no review fee, so a review costs you nothing whether or not anything comes of it. That also means we have an interest in the outcome, and you should read our recommendations knowing that.
The way we manage that honestly is by writing down what we found rather than only what we would like to sell. You keep the notes. If the recommendation is to move something, the reason is stated in coverage terms with the numbers attached, and if the recommendation is to leave a policy exactly where it is, that is written down too.
What to bring
Declarations pages for everything: home or renters, motor, umbrella, business, life. The dec page is the two-page summary at the front, and it is where almost all the useful information lives. If you only have a mobile phone photograph of them, that is genuinely enough.
Also useful, if you have them: your lease or any customer contract with insurance requirements, recent renewal notices including any conditional renewal, and a rough sense of what has changed in the last few years — a new driver, a renovation, a new employee, a business that has grown.
What we will not do with it
We will not use the review to build a case for replacing everything you own. New York Insurance Law 2123 forbids incomplete comparisons made to induce somebody to drop a policy, and beyond the statute it is simply a bad way to work — most households have two or three genuine gaps and a lot of perfectly adequate cover.
We will also not quote you a price against somebody else's coverage. Comparing our premium for thinner limits against your current premium for better ones is the oldest trick in this trade and it is exactly what that statute is about. Anything we show you is like against like, or it is labelled clearly as something different.
Switching is sometimes right and it is often oversold. Switching is sometimes right and it is often oversold. New York Insurance Law 2123 forbids misleading statements and incomplete comparisons made to get somebody to drop a policy they already have, which is the trade's name for its own oldest trick. Before we recommend a move we price what you lose as well as what you save: claims-free and tenure credits that restart, a policy period you are part-way through, and, on a motor policy, the New York lapse trap — a gap in cover on a registered vehicle costs you the registration and a civil penalty for every day of it, which is far more expensive than the premium you were saving.
Included as standard
How we handle this line
Every policy read, not just ours
Including the ones placed elsewhere, and including the ones we would not be able to write.
Findings in writing
You keep the notes, whether or not you buy anything, and whether or not you are a client.
Like-for-like comparisons only
Same limits, same deductibles, same forms. A cheaper premium for thinner cover is labelled as exactly that.
The stay-put recommendation
Given plainly when it is right, which is often. It is the recommendation that costs us money and it is the test of the rest.
Credits and endorsements checked
Good student, defensive driving, multi-policy, and the endorsements your lease or contracts actually require.
No fee, and no obligation
We are paid by carriers if you place something and by nobody if you do not. There is no charge either way.
When to ring us
Signs this is worth a conversation
- Your policies renew at different times with different agencies.
- Nothing has been reviewed since you bought the house.
- A new driver, a renovation, an employee or a valuable item has entered your life.
- Your renewal has risen and nobody has explained which part of it moved.
- You have an umbrella and have raised your underlying limits since.
- You suspect you are over-insured somewhere and under-insured somewhere else.
Policy review — what this costs you
- For clients and non-clients alike. We are paid by carriers, not by you, and we do not charge broker fees — see how we are paid.No charge
This one is our own charge, and it is nothing. We are paid a commission by the carrier whose policy you buy; we charge no broker fee and no policy fee, and we take no fee for claims work or for certificates — which is also what keeps this agency on the correct side of the New York public adjuster licensing line. Ask what we are paid on your policy and you will get the percentage and the carrier in writing.
Questions we are actually asked
Policy review — frequently asked
Is the policy review really free?
Yes, for clients and non-clients alike. We charge no broker fee, no policy fee and no review fee. We are paid a commission by the carrier if you place cover with us and by nobody at all if you do not, which is worth knowing when you read our recommendations.
Do I have to move my policies to you?
No, and quite often we will recommend that you do not. A policy that is correctly built and fairly priced should not be moved simply because somebody new has looked at it. You keep the written findings either way.
What do I need to bring?
The declarations pages — the two-page summary at the front of each policy — for everything you hold. Photographs on a phone are fine. If you have a lease, a customer contract with insurance requirements or a recent renewal notice, bring those too.
How long does it take?
About forty minutes for a household with a home and a motor policy, longer if there is a business. You can do it at the office on 61st Street, on the telephone, or by email if you would rather send the documents over and get the findings back in writing.
Related cover
Usually considered alongside this
Renewals
We look at your renewal before you do, and we tell you when the answer is to stay put — which it often is.
No charge
Claims support
Reporting it the same day, sending the carrier the history, and escalating — but never deciding, because deciding is not ours to do.
No charge
Certificates
Usually within the hour. What we will not do is describe cover on a certificate that is not on the policy.
No charge
New to New York
Why your premium doubled when you crossed a state line, what has to happen in which order, and the thirty-day clock on your registration.
No chargeBring the declarations page and we will read it with you
Ask us what it would cost
Send or bring the summary pages of what you already have — those two sheets are where most of the useful conversation is. We will tell you what we would place it with and what that would cost, what we are paid for doing it, and whether you should move at all. Quite often the answer is that your current policy is priced fairly and you should keep it, and that is an answer we give in writing like any other.